Every weekend, people stand by and sometimes participate in the verbal abusive barrages aimed at players, referees and other officials. Alarmingly, sometimes the confrontations are physical. All our sporting codes are trying to address the issue and layer upon layer of codes of conduct and ethical practice guidelines do not always have the desired effect. As an association trying to recruit young referees it is truly distressing and disappointing when we see talent turn their back on refereeing because they have been the target of abuse.

So what can we do to address this blight in sport? We're actively encouraging our referees to report instances of abuse and utilise the code of conduct frameworks that seek to protect them and deal with the perpetrators. We also hope that all participants in sport make themselves aware of the codes and stick by them. The sanctions and financial penalties that are available in workplace situations are remedies not currently available in sport arenas but should they be? Is it not a dim reflection on our society that we should even need to think in these dimensions rather than have an empathetic approach to participants in sport no matter what their role? Games cannot function without referees. Can you help play a part and tell those that do abuse referees and others that it's not OK?

SO Australia is the lucky country is it? Child abuse, elderly people thrown out of their nursing home, we've been castigated by David Attenborough for our neglect of environment (whether you believe in climate change or not), and by Amal Clooney for our abuse of press freedom, we have people held without trial on islands far away from Australia so we can pretend they're not there, our economy is slowing, people are unemployed, we are one of the most wasteful people on earth, we are going to have to import powdered milk from wherever because we've abused our dairy farmers for so long, tower buildings are falling apart and owners will be the ones who will have to pay for restitution because builders are not required to insure against faults in a building over three storeys. The author of The Lucky Country, Donald Horne, wrote about Australia but his title is meant in a negative way - read the Wikipedia entry or better still the book and be enlightened. Lucky?

YESTERDAY at the cinema I was asked did I want to round up the cost of my tickets and donate to charity. "Which one?" I asked and then considered. Had they been involved in the abuse of small children and then lied about it, do they vilify and persecute members of the LGBTQI community and are currently campaigning for legislation to allow them to go on doing this? Do they have in their manifesto homosexuals must be killed and when questioned about it say they don't mean literally? So the minefield. It is time we had a website where all the charities are accountable and I can be sure where and to whom my money is going. In the meantime I will give directly to those in need. Have you had a hot drink today and something to eat? Would you like a coat or and extra blanket? I can't provide the services they so desperately need that is the job of politicians who love us to see footage of them at their particular places of worship but fail to walk the talk. What a scandal in this rich country that one person sleeps rough. Let's hope when Israel Folau receives his $10 million from Rugby Australia he goes among the poor as Jesus did.

I WAS just curious why there was no mention of females being the perpetrators of violence against other females, or for that matter a great deal of men ('Standing up to it', Herald, 12/7). From my experience as a security and RSA/RCG trainer assessor, whenever I approached the topic of female violence in and around licensed premises with my class there was a resounding sigh "Oh girls? They're the worst!" and that's from the females in the class, the boys are too coward these days to even nod their head in agreement. I began working in hospitality in 1992 at the Crowne Plaza, Terrigal (before CCTV) where I was head doorman and duty manager when the old Key Largo nightclub was pumping. I remained there for 12 years. I then went to work at the Empire at Kings Cross, as well as the Shelbourne, Ridges Parramatta. I worked for Justin Hemmes and Merivalle where I was head doorman at the Establishment and worked the pool up at Ivy on a Sunday arvo. I worked for Drink & Dine in Surry Hills at The Carrington, The Forester and The Abercrombie on Broadway, then up to the Central Coast Leagues Club again, then Newy for E-Group on Beaumont St. I now work in the courthouses in Newy for SNP. I've lost count of the amount of females I've had to remove from these clubs and I've lost count of how many times I've been assaulted by females, or for that matter split fights up between females or split up fights with blokes females have antagonised. On one occasion on lock up outside Central Coast Leagues Club at 3am-ish I could have been in a scene from the horror flick Carrie when a hysterical 18-year-old girl walked in bare footed off the road in a little blue slip of a dress with blood pouring down over her hair and face after she had been nailed on the top of her head by the heel of a stiletto by another girl, a favourite weapon of a lot of females out on the town. I could go on, but no doubt I'd make you physically sick, but you get the picture.

"Oh girls? They're the worst!"

You only have to watch an episode of MAFS to see that.

BEFORE we rush to build nuclear power stations, apart from the cost of building them, the following facts from my Professional Engineering magazine from England are worth considering. The UK currently has 4.9 million tonnes of contaminated material requiring disposal, which, under current technology, will, apparently, take 120 years and cost 234 billion UK pounds to achieve. At the same time, more waste is being generated daily.